Religion, Heritage, and Politics: Literary Representations of St. Patrick's Purgatory in Spain During the 1620s and the Agenda of the Irish Émigrés Behind Them

Abstract

In 1627–28, the legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory served as inspiration for three literary works: Vida y purgatorio de San Patricio (1627) by Juan Pérez de Montalbán, El mayor prodigio y purgatorio en la vida (1627) by Lope de Vega, and El purgatorio de San Patricio (1628) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. This curious phenomenon has intrigued scholars for more than a century; however, while critics have studied various textual aspects of these works, they have ignored the sociopolitical factors that made the Irish question a topic of interest to a Spanish audience. During the first quarter of the seventeenth century, many Irish émigrés fleeing Protestant persecution in their homeland sought refuge in Spain, which caused much heated debate throughout the country. With the arrival of Felipe IV to the throne, the 1620s saw a concerted effort in the Irish colleges to justify to the king and his court the Irish presence in Spain on the basis of their religious, ancestral, and political affinities with the Spaniards. This article proposes that Montalbán, Lope de Vega, and Calderón understood these arguments and used their respective literary works to contribute to the efforts of the Irish émigrés who strived to create a positive image of their country, its people, and its history by reinventing the legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory for a Spanish audience.